Evening star. [volume], April 08, 1937, Page A-10, Image 10

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
THE EVENING STAR
With Sunday Morning Edition.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
THURSDAY...— April 8, 1937
THEODORE W. NOYES_Editor
The Evening Star Newspaper Company.
llth St, and Pennsylvania Ave.
New York Office: 110 East 42nd St.
Chicago Office: 435 North Michigan Ave.
Rate by Carrier—City and Suburban.
Regular Edition.
The Evening and Sunday Star
65c per month or 15c per week
The Evening Star
45c per month or 10c per week
Hie Sunday Star_5c per copy
Night Final Edition.
Night J*>nal and Sunday Star_70c per month
Night Final Star__55c per month
Collection made at the end of each month or
each week. Orders may be sent by mail or tele
phone National 5000
Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance.
Maryland and Virginia,
Dally and Sunday_1 yr.. $10.00; 1 mo., 85c
Dally only _1 yr.. $6.00; 1 mo.. 60c
Sunday only-1 yr.. $4.00; 1 mo.. 40c
All Other States and Canada.
Dally and, Sunday. 1 yr., $12.00; 1 mo. $1.00
Daily only_ 1 yr., $8.00; 1 mo.. 75c
Sunday only-1 yr.. $5.00; 1 mo., 50c
Member of the Associated Press.
The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to
the use for republication of all news dispatches
credited to It or not otherwise credited in this
paper and also the local news published herein.
All rights of publication of special dispatches
herein are also reserved.
Minimum Wages.
"The relation between earnings and
morals is not capable of standardiza
tion,” said the Supreme Court in in
validating the District minimum wage
law In 1922. That opinion has been
overruled and a new majority of the
court has declared, in effect, that such
a relationship is susceptible of stand
ardization through minimum wages. But
forthcoming consideration of new
amendments to the revived District act
may show that it would be better to
abandon the old law's reliance on a
“cost of living'’ necessary to maintain
woman workers ‘‘in good health and
protect their morals’’ and in its place
substitute the more reasonable con
ception of a minimum wage based on
the value of services rendered.
In the prophetic words of Justice
Holmes’ dissent to the majority opinion
In the minimum wage case, the only
objection to the District law that could
be argued ‘‘is found within the vague
contours of the fifth amendment.” But
the majority opinion did object to the
fact that minimufti wages in the Dis
trict were based on a cost of living
designed to maintain women in health
and to protect their morals, without
relation to the value of the services per
formed by the women. The act, said
Justice Sutherland, ignored the incom
petence of workers.
ah that is past now and the law Is
valid. But the emphasis placed in the
District act on a minimum wage for
protection of health and morals of
woman workers, determined by lengthy
investigations of cost of living figures
and arbitrary determination of the
number and cost of the hats, dresses,
coats, stockings and other more intimate
paraphernalia that a woman should
need; the amount she should pay for
a room or the cost of her food seems
less logical than the theory of the
newer laws of New York, New Jersey,
New Hampshire and some other States.
In these laws, modeled after a standard
act drawn by the National Consumers’
League, the emphasis is placed upon
minimum wages “fairly and reasonably
oommensurate with the value of the
service or the class of service rendered.”
Unreasonable wages, which would be
corrected by establishment of a min
imum, are those that are “less than the
fair and reasonable value of the services
rendered and less than sufficient to meet
the minimum cost of living necessary
for health.” The cost of living is, of
course, taken into consideration. But
the value of services performed cor
rectly receives major emphasis. The
question of morals, so repeatedly em
phasized in the District statute, is ap
parently considered of less importance
these days. And it is a little hard to
see how a woman's morals are safer at
$16.50 a week than at $15—which w^as
the range in wages established in 1922
in the four minimum rates then pre
vailing.
There Is some discussion now of
amending the local act to permit an ex
periment In establishing minimum wages
for men. That would, of course, put
that section of the law back in the
courts immediately for another test.
Those who are in favor of this experi
ment may agree with the Sutherland
theory of 1922 in so far as regarding
the nineteenth amendment as having
"emancipated women from the old
doctrine of special protection and re
straints.” But that theory did not
appeal to Justice Holmes. “It will need
more than the nineteenth amendment,”
he observed, “to convince me that there
are no differences between men and
women, or that legislation cannot take
those differences into account.”
Whether legislation can validly refuse
to take them into account by deciding
that what is sauce for the goose is sauce
for the gander would, in effect, be the
new question raised in minimum wages
for men.
The Judiciary in Canada.
Canada has a judiciary controversy
resembling in some respects the Supreme
Court issue now agitating the United
States. Conspicuously involved in the
situation which has arisen is a question
of empire relationship, already discussed
as containing the seeds of critical pos
sibilities. To grapple with all its rami
fications, the Ottawa government plans
a conference of political leaders similar
to that which preceded confederation in
1867. The purpose is to consider con
stitutional changes to give the central
government more power than it now
possesses.
Matters were brought to a head by
recent decisions of the British Privy
Council invalidating most of the so
called Canadian new deal social reform
measures instituted by the late Con
servative government. Debate in the Do
minion House of Commons this week re
vealed unanimity of view among all
parties that Canada should substitute
Its own Supreme Court for the Privy
Council as a final tribunal of appeal and
k
demand corresponding amendments to
the British North America act. The
latter, as Interpreted by the Privy
Council, has produced the same sort of
challenge of judicial dicta, as underlies
the Roosevelt plan to enlarge the United
States Supreme Court. Recently
Canada’s two largest provinces enacted
wage and hour legislation, just as some
of our States have essayed to do, but
the Federal minister of justice ruled
that such a reform as unemployment
insurance could be established only on
a national scale. This conjures up the
States’ rights issue so long a bone of
contention here.
Even abolition of appeal to the Privy
Council would not suffice to revive the
Bennett new deal laws, inasmuch as
the Dominion Supreme Court had also
declared them unconstitutional. But in
the course of its judgment against them,
the London Privy Council also denied
Canada effective treaty-making powers.
This interpretation by the highest im
perial tribunal, now assailed in Canada
as “reactionary,” might conceivably cur
tail the Dominion’s right to conclude
reciprocal trade agreements with the
United States or even a St. Lawrence
waterway pact. The Privy Council de
creed, in substance, that Canada may
override provincial rights in making
treaties only if these are negotiated on
behalf of the British government.
Canada has proceeded on the theory
that under the Statute of Westminster,
in force since 1931, the self-governing
dominions possess a degree of autonomy
that fully comprehends the treaty
making prerogative. Mr. Cahan, secre
tary of state in the Bennett government,
declared in Parliament that the Privy
Council's pretension to rob Canada of
such authority can only tend to "hasten
and insure the dissolution of the British
Empire.” He demanded that the London
government disclose whether it concurs
in a judgment that may have "far
reaching and tragic consequences.”
Traffic Across Rock Creek.
An item of $30,000 is contained in the
District appropriation bill for the prepa
ration of preliminary plans for new
arterial routes across Rock Creek Park
on east and west lines. The reason
advanced for such a possible “improve
ment” is that transverse traffic has so
greatly increased of late that additional
facilities must be provided to accom
modate it. The plan in the minds of
those proposing this additional traffic
accommodation is to cross the park with
"fills” to permit the extension of roads
at grade across the valley. Disapproval
of such a project has been expressed in
strong terms by officials of the National
Capital Park and Planning Commission
and by the director of the District High
way Department. It is urged that if
there is need for additional transverse
accommodations the preferred method
should be by the construction of bridges
rather than by earthen fills.
It may be questioned whether there is
such a heavy volume of east and west
traffic across the park to warrant such
a ruinous method of highway construc
tion. It would cut the park into several
sections, isolated from one another save
by the provision of tunnels here and
there along the line of existing park
driveways. Not only would the beauty
of the park be seriously impaired, but
it would cease to be, as now, a feature of
the National Capital that has no equal.
Rock Creek Park has been regarded
as one of the most attractive public res
ervations to be found anywhere in the
world in close conjunction with a large
center of population. Its “development”
consisted simply of the provision of such
drives and walks as would give the fullest
‘access to all parts of it with the least
degree of destruction of the natural
beauties of the area. A series of earthen
embankments crossing the park from
east to west would reduce it to a series
of small parks and would, moreover,
invite further trespass in the years to
come as highway traffic increases.
The natural flow of traffic in the District
is toward and from the center of the city.
The daily movement in the area affected
by this proposal is generally north and
south. Transverse traffic is compara
tively light and during the busy hours
of the day is mostly for the making of
short cuts. It may be seriously ques
tioned whether there is any urgent occa
sion for the provision of these means of
east-west travel on the scale proposed.
If, however, it should be demonstrated
that this transverse traffic requires
greater accommodation assuredly the
best means of providing it is by the erec
tion of bridges, even though the cost may
be greater than that of earthen fills,
though that, indeed, is doubted. The ill
effect of the solid embankment type of
viaduct is now to be seen at the point
where Massachusetts avenue crosses
Rock Creek. That thoroughfare was
carried over on an earthen fill with
merely a narrow tunnel provided for
the flow of the creek and a roadway
alongside. It is now a dangerous bottle
neck in the park drive, and its correction
if undertaken would be very costly. Just
such a condition would result from a
carrying out of the embankment plan
as now proposed for several lines of
park crossing for vehicular traffic. Those
who favor the solid dike plan-for carry
ing the streets across the park have
only to observe the condition at the
Massachusetts avenue crossing to realize
the lamentable effect of a series of such
barriers to park travel and such tres
passes upon the park space which is
dedicated to the pleasure of the people.
Cherry Blossoms Bloom.
The cherry blossoms have not dis
appointed a waiting multitude. Yes
terday the sun called them out of their
protective coverings, buds became flow
ers all along the Tidal Basin rim. C.
Marshall Finnan, superintendent of the
National Capital Parks, inspected the
scene and then announced that the dis
play should be at its best over the
week end.
But more than passing beauty Is In
volved. The "most widely famous trees
k
in the world” are a symbol which ought
not to be neglected nor misunderstood.
A gift from the East to the West, they
constitute a bond of friendship between
Japan and the United States. The
thousands of Washingtonians and
visitors who will make it a duty to see
them should pause for a moment to
think what they mean. And the principle
they represent is universal. Civilization,
it seems, depends upon such things.
Through untold generations of human
experience a certain process of exchange
has been in operation—literature, music,
painting and sculpture, ideas and ideals
of every kind have been distributed from
hand to hand, from nation to nation,
until the whole earth is linked in one
common relation of fellowship.
The bystanding philosopher is en
couraged by the spectacle." He knows
that, the forces which divide the race
are less dynamic than those which draw
it together. Of course, strife interrupts
the normal pace of progress from time
to time, but peace heals the breach just
as consistently through the passing cen
turies. Viewed from a distance, the pic
ture is not one of ruin and devastation.
Rather, it is bright with flowers. And
each blossom may be regarded as a
star to guide any wanderers who have
strayed from the path toward the Ever
lasting Garden.
That nearly forgotten American writer
Ambrose Bierce once used the title ”My
Favorite Murder.” It was about a man
who sewed his grandfather in a bag and
let a vicious ram butt him to death. It
raised a thrill when published, but it
would pass as paltry fiction at present
when the front page is filled daily with so
great a variety of family homicides.
Sulphur and molasses was a favorite
old Spring tonic. As a philanthropist,
Professor Rex Tugwell might be willing
to divert from his present business
enough molasses to combine efficaciously
with the sulphurous invective in a sena
torial hearing.
As history has developed since Harry
Daugherty was aimiably but not always
felicitously in office, nothing has been
done to relieve the Attorney General of
the necessity of working overtime, re
gardless of the wage.
Maryland statesmanship is generously
solicitous about the gambling morals of
the Nation’s Capital. No matter what
profit the pari-mutuels may yield, the
District of Columbia will not be per
mitted to touch a nickel of it.
The title “doctor” or “professor’’ will
not prevent a man from looking like a
plain lobbyist when he tries to influence
congressional procedure through motives
of personal advantage.
Shooting Stars.
BY PHILANDER JOHNSON.
Cheer Up! I Told You So!
Some time ago when I was feeling
glum,
I said, “Cheer up! The worst is yet to
come!"
As time went by, the worst came draw
ing near,
And called us faithfully to presevere.
It was a small sarcasm; yet it proved
A sentiment by which our minds were
moved.
And when the world set forth its tale
of woe
I ventured to remark, “I told you sol”
And now, as hearts prepare for courage
true,
While brighter skies present themselves
to view,
I shall repeat in accents Arm though
bland,
“Beware! The better days are now at
hand;
Beware the recklessness which may
arise
To scatter hopes that seem so near the
prize.
And when fruition ere long we know,
I’ll venture to repeat, ‘I told you so!”'
No Anchorite.
“Are you going into society much?”
asked the old friend.
“Certainly,” answered Senator Sor
ghum. “As a patriotic person, I con
sider it a duty to show that I can attend
to my duties, however arduous, and con
tinue to be perfectly cheerful about it.”
“Pride is ever an obstacle,” said Hi Ho,
the sage of Chinatown. “It would be
much easier to correct a mistake were it
not needful before proceeding to con
vince some one that he made it.”
He Knew It.
“Some of the world’s finest literature
is out of print,” remarked the bibliophile.
"That’s right," replied the poet. “I
can’t get an editor to touch my produc
tions.”
Bnsy.
Said Uncle Sam, "When next you call
You will be welcome one and all.
Each will be cozy as can be
With cookies and a cup of tea.
But do not let it hurt your pride
If we appear preoccupied.
For this, good friends, you must allow;
Hie folks are cleaning house just now.
"The bureaus must be moved about
While pigeonholes are emptied out.
The merry birds to Spring belong,
We dare not linger for the song.
Before we pause for hours of fun
There’s simple duty to be done.
We can’t wait for polite pow-wow;
The folks are cleaning house Just now.”
Amid Dissensions.
"I understand you are the teacher of
the new singing school."
“I started in a teacher," replied Miss
Cayenne, "but now I’m the referee.”
“Sometimes,” said Uncle Eben, "de
tremenjus self-esteem dat er man gits
am intiahly due ter de fack dat he am
ar bad jedge ob character."
V A
Inconsistency of Nations
Seeking New Territories
To the Editor of The Star:
“O, Consistency, thou art a Jewel,"
is an old saw, and I have been reminded
of it frequently here of late in reading
comment on the state of our troubled
world. Consistency is expected of na
tions just as it is expected of persons,
because nations have frequently been
compared to individual persons, and
rightly so, because they are made up
of such individuals, and do in the mass
perform many times in the same fashion.
And nations have many of the same
problems as do individuals. For instance,
lately there has been a grouping of
nations into two classes—the Haves and
the Have Nots, and certainly no one will
deny such a classification to individuals
within the nations.
Nearly two years ago Col. House
wrote an article describing the tension
between these two sets of nations, and
because of his prominence it was widely
read and created quite a stir in official
circles. More recently the League of
Nations, probably inspired by the article
of Col. House, set its International Com
mittee to work to study the problem
of the Haves and Have Nots.
But what interests me at the moment
is the inconsistency of the nations which
shows itself in their endeavor to solve
their problem, and the unwillingness of
these nations and those persons who
think these nations do have a case at
court, to also see that within these na
tions the case between the individual
Haves and Have Nots is just as vital and
important to the peace of the world.
Within the natic\ns they seem willing to
let the strife continue, and many noble
and fine gentlemen who would like to do
something to equalize the tension be
tween nations in order to avoid war are
entirely indifferent or antagonistic to
efforts to compose a like tension between
classes within the nations, apparently
being unable to see that the strife be
tween individuals and classes of indi
viduals is the real cause for the clashes
between nations which is war.
There Is abundant proof of this. Ger
many had her colonies prior to the
World War, but this did not prevent her
from arming to the teeth and going to
war at the first opportunity, nor did it
prevent all other nations, whether Haves
or Have Nots, from taking a hand in
the sport.
But there is another phase of this
matter upon which I would like to touch.
Italy, Germany and Japan are said to
be the Have Nots, and because they feel
that way they claim the right to seize
the country of weaker nations in order
to find sustenance for their growing
populations and to maintain their in
dustrial life. Of course, that may all
be very fine for these Have Nots, but
what about the helpless peoples who
have been slaughtered, whose country
has been seized and whose children will
be exploited and enslaved? I wonder
if the nations, whether Haves or Have
Nots. and individual persons within these
nations are not trampling under foot
that unchanging and Inexorable law:
“With what measure you mete, it shall be
measured unto you.” And do they under
stand that this trampling is the cause
lor all their troubles?
S. L. HOOVER.
Feature Article on United
States Mints Corrected
To the Editor of The Star:
In a feature article appearing on page
“B-3” of The Star (last edition) of Sat
urday, April 3, entitled “Two watchmen
and a $3 dog guarded first mint” it
was stated, among other things, that
“The three mints started in the South
in 1838, at Charleston, S. C. • * •”
which is in error. The mint started was
located at Charlotte, N. C„ where gold
coins were minted until 1858 under the
mint mark “C,” many of which coins
are now in existence and kept as sou
venirs.
The original building, considered ar
chitecturally perfect, remained in use
as an assay office and later for other
Government activities until about five
years ago when it was removed to make
room for the new Post Office and Federal
Court Building. Prior to its being dis
mantled, the exact measurements were
made by architects and the building
materials secured by the City of Char
lotte and Mecklenburg County and the
citizens of same, and today there stands
in the City of Charlotte, N. C., a build
ing known as the Mint Museum, which
is an exact reproduction of the front
part of the original building and con
structed out of the materials from the
old building. The Eagle was purchased
by a patriotic citizen and donated to the
museum and is now among the relics to
be seen there. FLOYD M. GRESHAM.
Tidal Basin Not Proper
Site for the Memorial
To the Editor ol The Star:
As a transient resident of Washington
the past five years, I desire to protest
against the destruction of the Tidal Basin
for the purpose of constructing the Jef
ferson Memorial.
To me the Tidal Basin, with its cherry
blossoms, is the most beautiful spot in
Washington. Beauty is greatly desirable
in the Capital of our country’.
Why not erect a Jeffersonian Memorial
on the south side of the Mall facing the
proposed Mellon Art Gallery This con
struction would give a balance to both
structures; it would be an added attrac
tion to the Mall; it is much more con
venient and accessible to the visitors who
come by the way of the Union Station.
I simply offer this as a suggestion.
CHARLES J. COLDEN.
Plan to Prevent Strikes
By Division of Profits
To the Editor ot The Star:
Strikes ordinarily arise from unjust
and unfair wages paid by prosperous
firms.
I have often heard a firm’s head or a
member boast that “by many years of
hard work he had now built up a good
business.” But is this strictly true? He
and his employes working together built
up a paying business, for alone he could
have dose nothing.
Now my plan is simply this: When
a firm shows a substantial profit or even
any profit it should divide it 50-50 with
its employes, in addition to the wages
paid them. For example, say there are
10 members to a firm and 200 employes,
and suppose the yearly profit is $100,000.
Then dividing it equally each member
would get $5,000 and each employe $250.
I believe that most of the strike trouble
is with firms that are slave drivers and
who try to hog all the profits, giving
their employes very little for good serv
ices rendered. Find a group of con
genial men well taken care of by a firm
or corporation and judge for yourself.
In such an entity no dissatisfaction is
usually found, and the company is pros
pering. Today’s wage and salary prob
lem faces nearly all of us. TTiere are
so many slices to be cut from our dollar
in order to pay for so many things now
deemed essential that unless one makes
a fair salary he merely exists, which is
"ot my interpretation of a “living wage."
W. N. CHRISTMAS.
jUUngtao. va.
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.
Whatever Americans do, they overdo.
The latest example of this tendency,
according to Templeton Jones, is the
picture field.
Bigger and better photographs, in
books, magazines, newspapers, all cater
ing to a taste for pictures, eh?
Cameras popping off from all angles,
film manufacturers working night and
day to supply the demand, dark rooms
always glowing with red light—
Jones believes that they are slowly
killing the goose that laid the golden
egg. It’s an old story.
Talk, he feels, has given the knockout
blow to radio.
Blah, blabber and blubber, these
three, and one more, Just plain talk,
and people no longer turn on their sets
as they used to, at least according to
Jones.
* * * *
He hopes it won’t be that way with
pictures.
For pictures are swell, he feels, but
•when six poses of the same funny look
ing fellow are thrown at the gentle
reader, or spectator, as he is getting to
be, in a row, it is much too much.
One would do the trick.
The basic fault of the newer tech
nique (still according to Jones) lies in
the failure to understand the difference
between words and pictures, between
brains and eyes.
Word craft is a building craft.
Use of words, to entertain, to instruct,
or to impel, or all three, demands a
build-up.
Proper writing technique calls for the
co-operation of the reader. He is gently
induced by a writer to put himself in
the latter's shoes, and reconstruct along
with him.
* * * *
When this work of reconstruction is
done for you, if you have a standard
amount of brain, you tend to become
tired of doing nothing.
This is where the motion picture, at
least according to Templeton Jones, falls
down with a bang, and where the radio
is falling down with a bang.
Numbers of movie fans, and numbers
of radio listeners, he feels, do not alter
his contention in the least.
There might be ten times as many
spectators and listeners as there are,
and his contention would not be shaken
in the slightest, at least according to
Jones.
To a certain type of mind—the Jones
ian mind, of course, and its fellow
minds—the proper co-operation is what
makes anything interesting.
The reason many persons are going
back to the phonograph lies directly in
the path of non-co-operation of the
radio.
Nothing is asked of the listener, and
he grows tired of it.
Not so many years ago he was la
menting the fact that he must be
“hopping up and down” changing
records.
Now he sees that such “hopping” was
a mighty good thing.
It gave him a part in the music.
Inventive genius, always ready to in
vent, conceived the mechanical record
changer.
The mind of man. always ready to
admire itself, admired the record
changer Immensely.
It, however, took away what was left
of his self-help in his mechanical music.
Now all he had to do was look at the
box, and it gpround out an hour’s music
without requiring any movement on his
part.
Templeton Jones, and many like him,
shortly discovered that he was no
Buddha.
Unwavering contemplation of noth
ing is unsuited to the human animal.
Where mechanics, as applied to life
and industry, falls down with more than
the proverbial bang, is in regard to this
demand that man, a roving, moving
creature, be chained to a desk or a
machine.
Man can stand it, but only at great
cost, both to himself and what he is try
ing to do.
Discontent the world around, Jones
feels, may in part be laid directly at the
door of unhuman ways of doing things
in work and play. The word "unhuman”
has been used so long to indicate some
thing bestial that it requires some
effort to give it the proper connotation
of "other than human,” but it may be
done by a slight bit of effort.
* * * *
So people today, in 1937, are going
back to the piano.
Why, they have taken all the "works”
out of the mechanical pianos of yester
year, the bellows and the pedals and the
what-not, and are selling them as
“straight” pianos!
Similarly, you don’t hear so many
radios blaring as you go around the
streets.
People are tired—at least Jones so
explains it—of the incessant chatter on
radio, and, what is more, more than tired
of being able to take no part in what
is going on.
Schoolboy bands and orchestras point
in the same direction. All the kids want
to learn to play.
Stores which two years ago had prac
tically gone out of the disc record busi
ness today are selling 10 times as many
records as in the old days.
The perfection of the new electrical
recordings, with the huge selection pos
sible from many foreign makes, as well
as American, helps explain this back
trek, but the desire of listeners to have
a part in what they are doing says
more, at least to our friend Templeton
Jones.
Jones explained his attitude carefully
the other day, when we ventured to
remonstrate, to the effect that pictures
also demand that one enter into them,
and actively do a bit of thinking.
“It isn’t the same thing,” he said. “If
people are going back to own-make
music, as they are, they will go back
to own-made pictures, which require
words to construct them in the mind.
“The present urge toward pictures is
a gross overdoing, and will suffer the
same fate, in the end, as has overtaken
all other mechanical arts, for photo
graphs. in the sense of which I speak,
are strictly mechanical.
“Consider this new picture magazine
which has made such a hit. I, too. fell
for it with a bang. I treasured all my
copies. Then I began to find myself
looking at nothing but the pictures. I
stopped reading the lines and explana
tory matter.
“Now I merely glance at the pictures,
and I find that the more I Just glance
the more bored I become.
“A picture gets what it asks for—a
glance, whereas with writing you have
got to put yourself into it to get any
pleasure or instruction out of it.
“Mark my word, this present craze
for pictures of all kinds, including semi
nudes and ’shockers,’ especially of the
medical variety, is going to be the biggest
thing that ever happened for writers."
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS R. HENRY.
Twenty years ago, when I was a fresh
man In college, the campus was haunted
by a queer, gnomelike old man whom the
boys called Johnnie the Lion. His Rus
sian name was unpronouncable. He was
dwarfish of stature, with long white hair
covering his shoulders and wearing a
threadbare, unpressed black suit. It got
to be a custom to say “Good morning,
doctor,” just for the pathetically exag
gerated bowing and smiling with which
he responded.
Johnnie the Lion was a professor In
the university. He was listed in the
catalogue as “lecturer in mathematics.”
He taught one course. Some years he
had one or two pupils, some years none.
The fact is that even advanced candi
dates for doctorates in mathematics
didn’t know what he was talking about.
One of them, now a member of the Na
tional Academy of Sciences, once told
me so.
A freak—I don’t know. Certainly a
strange figure in a New England indus
trial town—a strange figure even on the
campus of a very liberal university. But,
I am assured, his mathematics were
sound, he had made some notable con
tributions to the science, he had been a
musician of note, and in his head was
packed more abstruse learning than could
have been gathered from the faculties of
one or two of the graduate departments.
Some years later Eamonn de Valera
visited the city, whose preponderantly
Irish population gave him a triumphal
reception. The only man in town who
could talk Gaelic was this same Johnnie
the Lion. He welcomed the Irish leader
at the station in that tongue and the
two professors of mathematics had a
long chat while everybody else was kept
waiting. As long as De Valera re
mained old Johnnie stayed with him.
Some of the business and professional
men, who had arranged the reception,
were rather put out over it. Never
thereafter were they quite so enthusiastic
about freeing Ireland. Their hero, the
rebel and politician, sank sadly in their
estimation from his familiarity with a
freak scholar.
Among the undergraduates at the col
lege a lot of legendry grew up about
Johnnie the Lion. He was an escaped
Russian exile from Siberia. He con
versed freely In forty languages. He
had squared the circle. He had found
the fourth dimension. Oblivious to all
this, the old man took his morning walks
about the campus. I remember him best
with his long white hair blowing in a
Winter snowstorm. He was so gentle,
dignified, courteous, kindly and glamor
ous that I don’t think even the most
irreverent freshman ever quite regarded
him as a freak. One couldn’t quite
smile at him, there was such a aura of
other worldliness about him. He was
about as near a supernatural figure—
the adjective is used advisedly—as I
personally ever encountered.
Johnnie the Lion, it may well be, had
sailed far on the seas of thought be
yond our bounds of space and time. He
had stepped through the one gate which,
this side of the grave, opens into the in
describable reality which encompasses
man’s cosmos of sight and sound. He
never had been quite able to find his way
home again. He was pleading, so genttf
and fearsomely, on the other side of the
gate for somebody in the world of man
to open It for him.
There are two gates opening from
man’s twain upon atraaga. far ptaMi.
t
One gate opens downward into the ogre
haunted dead ages through which the
race was carried as an infant in the arms
of evolution and of which it has only
fleeting, distorted memories such as come
in insane asylums, in dreams and in
moments of transcendent passion. That
is the gate of the emotions. The other
gate opens upward into a region where
man never has been, but which he may
traverse in the coming days of his long
pilgrimage. It is a gate which is opened
by the key of mathematics. Few have
passed through it throughout the ages.
One of these few was the bowing, smil
ing old man who tramped over the New
England campus in the January blizzard.
He was the loneliest figure I ever
saw. He lived alone in an attic room
and cooked his own meals. What would
he have done if some students had in
vited him to a frat house party? What
would he have done if some of them
had asked him to the saloon on the comer
for a glass of beer? I don't know. I
suspect he would have been unutterably
happy. But nobody could quite approach
him with any such proposals. Nobody
could get through the gate to him. And
if anybody had, I suspect the old man
couldn’t have gotten far enough back
into the world of sights and sounds to
have accepted.
Johnnie the Lion, I suppose, is dead.
His poor, wandering soul is pleading at
the gate no longer. I have met from
time to time great soldiers, great ex
plorers, great statesmen, great criminals.
They have all seemed dull, earthly fig
ures compared with this old man. He
had known a greater adventure than any
of them. What was the interior on
Antarctica or the crest of Mount Everest
compared to that super-reality beyond
the gate where he, I imagine, had been.
Others have opened the gate. Perhaps
Johnnie the Lion was one of the least
of the select few from Pythagoras to
Einstein for whom, in this life, the portals
have opened. He is a vague memory
now, after almost a quarter of a century,
until Dr. Eric Temple Bell’s just pub
lished “Men of Mathematics’’ was laid
on my desk. It is the history of the most
glamorous company of adventurers in the
annals of the race, done by one of the
few men who might have some claim to
be numbered among them—himself a
mathematician and a member of the
National Academy of Sciences. It should
be one of the greatest adventure stories
ever written.
The 700-page volume is a talisman. It
brings back this Winter afternoon the
bowing, smiling, white-haired, sad ghost
of Johnnie the Lion, the snow falling on
his long white hair. Strange, pathetic,
mystical, gently pleading
Birthday Anniversary
Of Benjamin Franklin
To the Editor of The Star:
On your editorial page I noted that
April 17 was mentioned as the birthday
anniversary of Benjamin Franklin. I
may be laboring under a misapprehen
sion and if so, I humbly apologize for
presuming to correct your writer, but I
have a distinct impression of having
observed Dr. Franklin’s birthday each
year in school on January 17.
GERTRUDE L. KANE.
Note—Benjamin Franklin was born on
January 17, 1706, and died on April 17,
17M.
I
I ANSWERS TO
QUESTIONS
J1- FREDERIC 1. HASRW.
-— ■ J
A reader can get the answer to ang
question of fact by writing The Evening
\ Star Information Bureau, Frederic J.
Haskin, Director, Washington, D. C.
Please inclose stamp for reply.
Q. How many child brides are there .
in the United States?—H. W.
A. According to the 1930 census, latest
Government statistics on the subject,
there were 4,241 girls married before
they reached their fifteenth birthday
at the time the records were compiled.
Q. How long is the route of the coro
nation procession?—H. W.
A. It is six and one-quarter miles.
Q. Please give the list of 10 most
beautiful words selected by Wilfred J.
Punk several years ago.—E. M.
A. They are: Dawn, hush, lullaby,
murmuring, tranquil, mist, luminous,
chimes, golden and melody.
Q. What part of a diamond is above
the girdle?—L. J. p.
A. The cut of a diamond is standard
ized, with one-third above the girdle and
two-thirds below.
Q. Are soy beans used in the manu-’
facture of rayon?—J. L.
A. In Japan the stems of the soy bean
are made into rayon yarn.
Q. What is the name of the school In
the South to which Henry Ford donated
a large sum of money?—J. L. W.
A. Mr. Ford contributed *3,000,000 for
buildings at Miss Martha Berry's School
at Mount Berry, Ga.
Q. What is the Indian name for ths
headdress worn by Indians in North
America?—F. G.
A. The headdress or war-bonnet
originated among the Plains Indians
and later spread in all directions. The
names by which it was known varied
with each tribe. A more common head
gear was a narrow band of skin or
leather which was made to hold one or
more feathers. The following are names
used by the tribes indicated for head
gear in use by them and their immediate
neighbors' Ostoa, Onondaga; Gestowa,
Seneca; Ucnura, Tuscarora.
Q Is it true that a foreigner not re
siding in the United States can become
a citizen by application?—J. R.
A. He cannot become a citizen of the
United States without residing in this
country.
Q. Why is counterfeit money called »
flash money?—C. D.
A. The term originated in England.
Many years ago that country had a
flood of counterfeited notes. When traced
to their source it was found that they
were made in Flash, a town in Derby
shire.
Q. How many telephone calls are made
in voting for Maj. Bowes’ amateurs?
—K. M. *
A. Since the beginning of the amateur
hour broadcasts listeners to the series
have made more than 2.562.800 telephona
calls in voting for their favorites.
Q. For whom are New York City ferry
boats named?—W. R.
A. In the past city ferryboats have
been named after boroughs, sections of
the city, or after former city officials,
the one exception being the American
Legion, a ferryboat plying between the
Battery and St. George, Staten Island*.
Mayor La Guardia, however, has estab
lished a precedent in giving feminine
names to three new boats which will be
designated as Gold Star Mother, Miss
New York and Mary Murray, named for
Mary Lindley Murray of Revolutionary
fame.
Q. What was the Conway Cabal?—
V. N.
A. It was an intrigue in 1777-8 headed
by Horatio Gates, Charles Lee, Thomas
Mifflin and James Lovell, with Thomas
Conway as a tool. Its purpose was few
replace Washington with Gates. The
scheme failed and Conway left the
country and went to France.
Q. Who has the most complete collec
tion of cook books?—S. M
and Mrs, A. W. Bitting are
credited with having the most complete
and unusual collection in the world.
Q. Please give some information about .
Budapest, Hungary—A. J. K.
A. Budapest, or Budapesth, is a beau
tiful city situated on both banks of the
Danube. Buda is the older town, com
prising several small hills, and was
founded by the Romans in the second
century A D. It is the home of the old
residential families. Pesth, which is of
more recent origin, commands a low,
flat plain, and is the center of the indus
trial activity. It is the center of the
largest electrical works in Europe and
is a shipping point for the grain, wine,
wood, cattle and flour of surrounding
countries. The prosperity of the citv
dates from the nineteenth century, after*
the union of the two cities, and the
population is over a million today. The
word, Pesth, is of Russian derivation,
and means oven. It Is supposed to applv
to the great lime kilns which were
once an outstanding feature of the
country.
Q. How many maple trees In Eastern
Canada will be tapped tor sap this
Spring?—P. D.
A. More than seventy million.
Q. How much life insurance is car
ried in the United States?—J. T.
A. Life Insurance in force in the
United States, according to the Spec
tator Company of Philadelphia, totaled
in 1935 for all policies, *100.730.415.000.
The peak for life insurance in force m
the United States was reached in 1931,
when the total was *108.S85.563.000. The
year in which the greatest amount of
life insurance was purchased was in
1929, when the total was *12,863,274,000.
Q. When are the Shakespearean plays ‘
presented at Stratford-on-Avon?—C. R.
A. This year the Shakespeare season
began on Easter Monday, March 29,
and will last until September 25.
Q. What is meant by the check-off sys
tem?—A. W.
A. This is the deduction of union dues
from a pay check by an employer.
A Rhyme at Twilight
By i
Gertrude Brooke Hamilton.
Arable Land.
From early dawn the farmers toil
Tilling the soil.
Red-brown each new-ploughed furrcW
lies
Under blue skies.
Rich, upturned turfs the nostrils greet
Odorous, sweet. ►
Artists and poets everywhere
Follow the ebua
> «